The three popular streaming services offer a variety of content, both original and otherwise, are available on multiple devices, and are priced slightly differently. So how do you choose which one is right for you? We’re here to help you make that choice.

Price

Netflix ($7.99 – $11.99)

Netflix offers customers three plans. The basic plan costs $7.99 and does not offer simultaneous streaming on multiple devices (except for older users) or HD streaming. The most popular plan costs $9.99, after the company increased the price by $1 in October.

This new price, however, affects only new users, at least until October 2016. Users can also stream simultaneously on two devices, and get HD streaming. Bumping the price up to $11.99 allows user to stream simultaneously on four devices.

Netflix DVD ($4.99 – $19.99):

Netflix sets itself apart from competitors by offering an additional DVD plan. Users can pay anywhere from another $4.99 to $19.99 a month to rent DVDs. The scale differs if you prefer Blu-rays over DVDs, and according to the number of discs you rent at a time – ranging from one to three. A limited $4.99 plan lets you rent two discs per month.

No matter what plan you choose, Netflix offers a 30-day free trial. While you have to enter your credit card information while registering, if you cancel at anytime, by phone or online, during your free trial, you won’t be charged. Netflix also does not offer refunds or partial credits for canceling mid-month.

Amazon Prime also offers a 30-day free trial, after which you’ll be automatically upgraded. You can cancel before your trial expires. On the “Manage Your Prime Membership” page, you’ll find the date your free trial ends.

Hulu ($7.99 – $21):

For $7.99 a month, Hulu users get unlimited access to the Hulu library, with ads. If you prefer an ad-free experience, Hulu recently introduced a $11.99 plan that gets you just that. Another $8.99 gets users access to Showtime content. With Hulu, users can stream on one device at a time.

As far as free trials go, Hulu comes in last place offering just one week gratis. Hulu, however, is the only service to offer users completely free access to some of its content. This includes a selection of episodes from shows like Scandal, South Park, Grey’s Anatomy, and Empire.

Winner: Netflix

Netflix comes out on top in the price category. Its $9.99 plan gives you more options than Hulu’s $7.99 plan, while also offering users a comparable plan for the same price as Hulu. Distilling it down to video streaming alone, it also beats out Amazon by billing monthly rather than annually.

Selection

Netflix:

Netflix has a stunning amount of original content across a wide range of genres: TV shows, movies, documentaries, and stand-up comedy.

The Netflix lineup includes popular award-winning shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, and stand-up comedy from the likes of Russell Peters, Chris Tucker, Aziz Ansari, and Chelsea Handler. It also lists among its original content Oscar-nominated documentaries The Square and Virunga, and films like the just-released Beasts of No Nation, which has already been labeled an Oscar contender.

With programs still airing, you can view all but the current season of shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, New Girl, How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, and more.

Recent movies available on Netflix include Kristen Wiig’s Welcome to Me, Jon Favreau’s Chef, and Jennifer Anniston’s Cake. Netflix owns the largest library of content, with some estimates suggesting it’s as big as 100,000 titles. It adds new content on a daily basis, and at a faster rate than content is removed.

Hulu:

Original content on Hulu now includes The Mindy Project, Difficult People, and the recently released Casual. Hulu’s original content library is very small, and doesn’t really include too many showstoppers. The Mindy Project, while definitely enjoying a cult following, only came to Hulu after it was cancelled by Fox.

Hulu’s real strength lies not in original content but in bringing current seasons of TV shows online, the day after airing. Current seasons of many of the shows available on Netflix are on Hulu. Prime time shows like Scandal, Empire, and How to Get Away with Murder are available, along with The Tonight Show with Trevor Noah, The Last Man on Earth, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, South Park, and more.

With some shows, Hulu users can view only the five most recent episodes, so if you want to watch your favorite new shows on Hulu, you don’t have long to do so.

Hulu has also gotten into the business of providing entire seasons of older shows, most significantly, it offers all nine seasons of Seinfeld.

Hulu has also teamed up with Showtime, offering users access to their TV shows and movies to Hulu users, but for an additional $8.99. This means access to shows like Homeland and Ray Donovan.

Amazon Prime:

Amazon also has a very small library of original content, but boasts among those titles the award-winning Transparent. The rest of the line-up, however, has not garnered much attention. Amazon Prime is estimated to have around 40,000 streaming movies and TV shows.

Amazon Prime offers a mixed bag of old and new movies, with current titles on offer including the Back to the Future trilogy, all seasons of The Good Wife (except for the current one), and most significantly, the HBO Collection, including series such as Newsroom, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, True Blood, and Flight of the Concords.

Winners: Netflix/Hulu

If this was just about to original content, Netflix wins hands down. Taking a look at 2015 Emmy nominations and wins, for example, Amazon had 12, while Netflix had 34. Of Amazon’s 12 nominations, 11 of them actually belonged to one show – Transparent. Hulu didn’t make it into the competition.

Original content aside, the types of content offered by each service differ. Netflix offers the greatest variety and some of the best quality shows. Amazon edges in with its HBO offerings, albeit for the older shows, but you could gain access to all things HBO, including the latest titles, with HBO GO for $15 a month. Hulu on the other hand has established itself as the king of primetime content, offering the latest shows days after they’ve aired.

Advertising

Netflix and Amazon are both completely ad free, for no additional cost. Hulu has only just recently introduced a pricier plan, where you can get ad-free viewing for $3 more than the standard plan. Reading the fine-print reveals, however, that a small number of shows are still not ad-free after all:

“For a small number of shows, however, we have not obtained the rights to stream commercial free and they are not included in our No Commercials plan. You can still easily access these shows with a short commercial before and after each episode with no interruptions during the episode. Specific shows that still have commercials accessible through the No Commercials plan will be noted throughout the signup, switching and playback experience. While the list of shows may change, they are currently: Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, Grimm, New Girl and How To Get Away With Murder.”

Hulu also occasionally offers regular users the option to watch one longer ad at the beginning of a show, to view the rest of it ad-free.

Winners: Netflix/Amazon

Both Netflix and Amazon come out on top compared to Hulu, by virtue of being ad-free.

Devices

All three streaming services are available on major devices: Apple TV, Roku, iOS, Android, and smart TVs. They can also be accessed from desktop browsers.

Amazon Prime and Hulu are available through the Chromecast by casting a tab from your Chrome browser. You can continue to use your computer while casting in full screen. Netflix, on the other hand, has the built-in ability to cast content to your TV, which improves the quality.

Winner: Netflix

Netflix barely edges out its two competitors here, simply by virtue of making it far easier to access content on multiple devices such as smart TVs and the Google Chromecast.

Quality

Amazon content is available on various devices in Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD), Ultra High Definition (UHD) or 4K picture resolution, and High Dynamic Range (HDR). Depending on your Internet connection, you can stream HD at 720p or better, going all the way up to 1080p.

Netflix content is available in SD, HD, and UHD. Netflix recommends 3 Megabits per second for SD, 5Mbps for HD, and 25Mbps for UHD. Both Amazon and Netflix adjust the service to offer you the best resolution based on your connection and devices.

Winner: Amazon

Amazon is the first to offer HDR which “features significantly increased color range and enhanced contrast between highlights and shadows.” It also recommends UHD, which offers a resolution four times greater than HD, at a lower recommended speed than Netflix — 15 Megabits per second — making it more accessible.

Interface

While user interfaces can differ across devices, for consistency’s sake, this comparison is based on accessing the streaming services via a desktop browser.

Hulu places a banner of popular shows at the top of the page, followed by the shows you watch, the latest TV shows, the most popular TV shows, popular movies, new seasons on Hulu, and popular episodes. Hulu’s interface is very organized, easy to navigate, and search couldn’t be easier. You can also delete shows and movies from your viewing list so that it no longer affects your recommended shows.

Netflix displays promoted shows, popular content, trending content, followed by shows you’ve already watched, recently added content, new releases, followed by shows you are currently watching, after which you’ll find recommendations based on your viewing history, and various genres.

You cannot remove shows from your lineup. If you want to access specific categories, you have to go through the menu, hidden behind the “Browse” button.

Amazon Prime video places promoted content at the top of the page, followed by titles related to your viewing history. Next comes Best of Prime, Recommended TV, and Recommended Movies. After that you can see Amazon originals.

With all three, you can search by title or celebrity.

Winner: Hulu

Hulu appears far more organized and easy-to-navigate compared to Netflix and Amazon. Allowing users to delete shows they have watched in order to ensure a recommendation list that is spot-on is another added advantage. Netflix is a close second, but burying its genres in a menu doesn’t do it any favors.

By comparison, Amazon seems a little messy, and the search function is tied in to the entire Amazon website, so you have to make an effort to filter it down just to Prime Video. And even then, the search results still include rentals and purchases.

Extras

Amazon Prime Instant Video is available in the U.S., plus several countries in Europe and Asia, while Hulu is available only in the U.S. and certain U.S. overseas military installations. Netflix, on the other hand, is available virtually worldwide in 83 locations, as pictured in the map above. (Netflix is coming soon to countries shaded in yellow).

At the end of the day, content is king. Netflix has the most in the way of sheer volume to choose from. And quantity is nothing unless it’s also quality, and Netflix delivers on this front as well. So, all things considered, we declare Netflix the winner of this showdown.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? If so, why? If you had to choose just one of these three services, which would you pick? Have you switched from one service to another recently? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

I have Amazon and Netflix, and I've tried Hulu Plus, which I absolutely hated because of the ads (the reason I got rid of cable 10 years ago). It's not true that people don't hate all ads, rather they hate the annoying ones. Nope. I hate ALL ads. Period. No exceptions. When Hulu offers a 100% ad-free experience, I'll consider giving them another shot, but I'm prefectly happy with Netflix and Amazon right now. I simply use them for different things. If there's a show I *love* and want to see new episodes with 12-24 hours of airing, I buy a season pass on Amazon (shows like MLP:FiM, Pokemon XYZ, and Mythbusters). Amazon Prime also sometimes has interesting older shows for free, but these are few and far between (such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Starget SG-1). Netflix is great for shows and movies that you don't really care about but will watch when bored (like Home, NCIS, and the Tinkerbell movies). I don't feel the need to subscribe to Hulu just fr 1 or 2 shows I might watch (like that one about Disney fairy tales) when there's always somewhere online you can watch a show commercial-free if you can't get it on Netflix or Amazon. The quality may stink, but you can't beat free. (I'd rather buy a show on Amazon, just because it's added to my library, but if it isn't availible or the price is ridiculous, then DailyMotion, here I come! :)

So, if you asked me to pick only 1 service, I'd pick Amazon just because I can purchase shows I like. For the subscription fee alone, however, I'd pick Netflix (which I watch the most often). I can't imagine a situation in which I would pick Hulu. I haven't had Cable in so long that Hulu is just a step backwards toward a world I haven't been a part of in a decade.

This article was so helpful to me as a recent cable cutter and a person in my 60s with low technical abilities. I thought I wanted Hulu but after reading your article I've decided to go with Netflix. Reason: I got rid of the cable not only because of the cost, but because there is so much junk on the networks. That means I really don't care that Hulu offers day-after programming . . . of shows that I didn't watch on cable. I miss watching the nightly news but can get that just as well on NPR radio. One thing I haven't been able to find is PBS, including Mr. Slefridge.

Thank you! Excellent article! The best I found in a long google search comparing these services.

I have all three (only got Amazon because I wanted free shipping not to watch their shows).

If you're still deciding I feel like this article gives Netflix most of the credit.

Really, It depends on what you want. If you want something more like regular TV, with the newest episodes coming out each week I would definitely recommend Hulu Plus. You can get two weeks free if you sign up here: http://hulu.com/r/ocjVSA

That's what I did and if you don't like it you can cancel before the two weeks are up and wont owe anything, but its really cheap anyways at only $7.99 a month.

Netflix it great for older seasons of shows and all kinds of interesting movies. It's great cause you can just sit for hours on a lazy day and watch a whole season if you want to. You can sign up here for a month free, $7.99 a month, and cancel at any time as well: https://signup.netflix.com/ Also great that you an share your account with multiple people.

I personally have both and love them a lot. I used to be a Netlfix junkie, but then when I got Hulu I honestly loved it even more because it has the best shows and sooner. Almost everything I watch is on Hulu.

I don't have cable, which is four times more expensive than both of these. Plus nothing is ever on TV, but with Hulu and Netflix you can always find something.

Hoenstly, If your getting rid of cable, I would get both, or at least start with Hulu because it's the most similar to regular TV.

Couldn't agree more. This was my cable cancelling cocktail for a long time but with new services that offer partial cable plans at great prices like Sling TV or Playstation Vue added to these other services I don't know how the big satellite and cable companies stay in business.

Thanks for sharing Nancy! I love Hulu especially because I can watch the latest episodes 1 day after they air. If you live outside USA like me, you can use UnoTelly or other similar tools to access Hulu Plus overseas.

We have Prime and Netflix but primarily watch things on Netflix. Prime is lousy at labeling what's included in the "free" category; you'll find something you want to watch and when you go to watch it turns out it's not included. All of that said, there are plenty of other options if you want different types of shows. The kids love PBS kids, we like Acorn TV for British shows. Crackle - which does have commercials - has some great original content (check out Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee). The ones in this article are obviously the "Big Boys" but there are plenty of options.

I have all 3. I get netflix for movies, Hulu for TV shows. I have prime because I get prime for free anyway. Don't even know why. Might be because I sell a book on there or because I use the page a lot for stuff I buy.

Nancy is a writer, photographer and editor, living in the DC area with her husband, their greyhound Ella, and Italian greyhound Oliver. Follow here on her personal blog , on Twitter , Pinterest, and Instagram